From the “Cornell Chronicle”, Jan. 15, 2015, and seen in the “Fast Facts” column of “College & Research Libraries News”, Vol. 76(2) p. 108, Feb., 2015,

“As an open-access service, it allows scientists from disciplines encompassing physics, statistics, computer science and others to share research before it’s formally published. One million papers have now been uploaded to the repository.”

“arXiv received more than 97,000 new submissions in 2014. More than 150 subject experts from around the world evaluate and categorize every article posted on arXiv.”

“Virus Evolutionis a new Open Access journal focusing on the long-term evolution of viruses, viruses as a model system for studying evolutionary processes, viral molecular epidemiology and environmental virology.

The aim of the journal is to provide a forum for original research papers, reviews, commentaries and a venue for in-depth discussion on the topics relevant to virus evolution.”

“On the heels of two vast analyses of the genomes of both birds and insects, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., has announced that it will launch a virtual biodiversity genomics institute to accelerate efforts to capture and catalog all the DNA from Earth’s flora and fauna. Science, 12/12”

UNESCO has launched the World Library of Science. “The library will be accessible to internet users everywhere in the world, at no cost. The majority of the content is for university-level students, giving them resources to ‘complement their learning’.” Target groups are students and teachers in the more underdeveloped parts of the world, especially, Africa. “The library – WLoS – ‘contains’ more than 300 articles, 25 eBooks and some 70 videos, as well as a digital platform that “provides a community hub” for learning, according to UNESCO, which created the site jointly with the international Nature Education publishing group and the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche.

“The library –WLoS– ‘contains’ more than 300 articles, 25 eBooks and some 70 videos, as well as a digital platform that “provides a community hub” for learning, according to UNESCO, which created the site jointly with the international Nature Education publishing group and the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche.”

[Visited Aug’14] Global Forest Watch (GFW), currently in beta phase, is a dazzling, open data website that aims to monitor deforestation worldwide. With partners like Google, the Jane Goodall Institute, and UNEP (among many others) and “convened by the World Resources Institute,” GFW will impress visitors with its beauty and obvious value. In order to provide “near-real-time” access to information like logging practices, GFW uses satellite images and provides a hub for local communities to upload photos and report illegal deforestation by use of smartphones and GPS mapping. The goal is to track these events as they happen, instead of months or even years later. Unfortunately, it is not possible for all the maps to be updated instantly. Users must agree to a lengthy terms of service agreement before entering the site, ensuring that they understand the limitations of the data presented.

Technology-adept users will find GFW extremely intuitive. Users begin with a 2-D map featuring multiple overlays; displays can be selected from sections such as Forest Change, Forest Cover, Forest Use, and Conservation. Data can be limited by years, ranging from 2001 to 2013. The Countries section contains more in-depth information. The site also features stories about deforestation, a blog prepared by the GFW team, and an alert service. GFW is rightfully confident of its benefits, providing a detailed plan of how the site can be utilized. Significantly, GFW clearly identifies the sources of the information retrieved, supporters of the site, and funding sources. Brief tutorials and FAQs offer additional information. Nearly everyone can find a use for this site and the inestimable data within–whether as a teaching tool or as a primary source for research. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic, general, and professional library collections.”

The Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters has announced a collaboration with DataCite, a global non-profit organization dedicated to enabling people to find, share, use, and cite data. The collaboration will promote the discovery of research data sets through the Data Citation Index, a single-point solution providing access to quality research data sets from multi-disciplinary repositories around the world.

This collaboration will connect the Data Citation Index to high quality research data from repositories worldwide that work with DataCite. This will ensure that the valuable content that has been made citable by DataCite is globally discoverable, properly attributed and reusable by other researchers. As part of the Web of Science – the premier scientific search and discovery platform and industry authority in science, social science, and arts & humanities citation indexes – inclusion within the Data Citation Index will also further DataCite’s mission of increasing acceptance of research data as citable contributions to the scholarly record.

Since creating the Data Citation Index, Thomson Reuters has worked closely with global industry leaders to expand the breadth of research discovery by capturing bibliographic records and cited references for digital research, as well as literature describing research which cites or uses the data, stewarding the accurate identification, attribution and measurement of this growing body of scholarship. The Data Citation Index allows users to gain a comprehensive view of the genesis of research projects and influence the future paths they may take, while minimizing the duplication of work and speeding the scientific research process to keep pace with the changing global research landscape. Through linked content and summary information, this data is displayed within the broader context of the scholarly research ecosystem, enabling users to gain perspective that otherwise would be lost if viewed in isolation.”

“This astonishingly powerful, award-winning database from The Royal Society of Chemistry provides fast access to over 30 million chemical structures and properties, as well as nearly unlimited links and related information. For a quick introduction, go to the About page and watch the ten-minute introductory video. Then start searching! Simple searches expedite your exploration when you enter the trade name, synonym, or systematic name of the compound you wish to find. Conversely, you can input by Structure, with an innovative Edit Molecule function. Lastly, Advanced searches allow you to combine methods. In addition, the ChemSpider blog boasts frequent entries about the site and the field at large. [CNH]“

Source: The Scout Report — Volume 20, Number 33, from the Univ. of Wisconsin

“Open-access publisher Frontiers, part of the Nature Publishing Group family, has announced the launch of two new open-access journals – Frontiers in Earth Science and Frontiers in Environmental Science.

Frontiers publishes all articles under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY), which allows users to share, copy and distribute a work, while at the same time crediting the authors of the article.”